This August we stopped Facebook from invading our privacy yet again, rounded up our favorite iPhone and Android apps, got up and running with Usenet, made the most of Gmail Calling, and more. Here's a quick look back.

How to Disable Facebook PlacesYesterday Facebook rolled out a new feature called Places that lets you and your friends check in to locations, Foursquare-style. If you'd prefer to keep your location private, or at least stop your friends from posting it, here's how.

Top 10 External Hard Drive TricksSo you've been computing for quite a few years now, and you've built a nice collection of hard drives, internal or external, collecting dust in the corner. Here's how to put them to good use.

Five Ways to Download Torrents AnonymouslyWith anti-piracy outfits and dubious law-firms policing BitTorrent swarms at an increasing rate, many BitTorrent users are looking for ways to hide their identities from the outside world. Here's an overview of five widely used privacy services.

Use a Dab of Vaseline to Take Vintage-Style PhotosThe low-quality lenses and loose tolerances of vintage consumer cameras often gave photos a slightly distorted and dream-like quality. Capture that vintage-feel with little more than a dab of Vaseline.

Top 10 Facebook FixesFacebook may be the de facto social network of, frankly, almost everyone, but that doesn't mean you have to use Facebook exactly the way its creators, or your Farmville-addicted friends, want you to. Here are 10 tweaks to make Facebook better.

Android 2.2 Screenshot Tour: Our Favorite Features in FroyoAndroid 2.2, or "Froyo," was announced months ago, but it's just now rolling out to popular Android phones like the Droid, Incredible, and EVO 4G. So what new and improved features should you look for now that you've updated? Take a look.

How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple StepsUsenet is a wonderful service for finding and downloading digital media, giving you speed and reliability you won't find with other file-sharing options—like, say, BitTorrent. Here's a quick guide on setting up and getting started with Usenet.

Eight Clever Ways to Take Advantage of Free Calling in GmailYou already know Gmail integrated with Google Voice for free phone calls (and cheap international calls) from your inbox. But apart from using it to phone a friend, Gmail's new phone calling capabilities introduce a lot of cool capabilities to your inbox.